Whether your business is one year or two decades old, your customers have a lot to do with your growth and success. By diversifying your audience, you’ll have access to new revenue streams and strengthen your competitive position in the marketplace.
In an episode of The Power Up podcast, Sheila Brooks, founder of Cake Craft Shoppe, talks about how she introduced new audiences to her business. Her advice is useful for business owners who want to get creative in their efforts to stay relevant and connect with new customers.
What Is A Target Market?
A target market consists of a specific group of people your business aims to reach with its products. Identifying your target audience is an important step in developing an effective marketing strategy. This allows you to tailor your efforts to meet the needs and preferences of the people who are most likely to be interested in your products.
For example, if your business sells customized stationery, focus on selling premium journals and specialty pens that contribute to your business’s reputation for quality. With a strong lineup in store, you can market to your target audience for these items: people who appreciate high-quality paper products and enjoy expressing their creativity through writing.
Why Your Current Audience Might Not Be Enough
It’s too broad
While it’s tempting to cast a wide net in hopes of capturing more customers, a good target audience doesn’t include everyone. A broad target audience makes it challenging to craft messages that resonate deeply with any specific group of customers. Narrowing down your audience allows you to focus your resources on the people who are most likely to do business with your brand.
It’s too narrow
On the flipside, a too-defined audience can inadvertently leave out potential loyal, repeat customers. Not only can you get bogged down in the details when developing messaging, but you may end up not having enough people to market to overall. While it’s good to be specific, keep in mind that being too particular can backfire.
Your business is evolving
As your business grows, so does your target audience. Maybe you sell more types of products than you did when you first opened your business. Or maybe you’ve opened a second location in a new geographic region. Either way, you should expand your small business target audience so it includes relevant customer demographics and capitalizes on opportunities for small business audience growth.
How To Identify A New Audience To Target
Determine the gaps in your current market
Keep an eye out for any underserved or overlooked market segments. These are areas where there is customer demand but few available products that provide what customers want.
Say, for example, you’re in the restaurant industry and notice an increase in customers requesting plant-based menu options. You research and find that few eateries offer a diverse selection of high-quality vegetarian or vegan dishes. This presents an opportunity to expand your customer base to include customers seeking a dining experience that aligns with their lifestyle.
Conduct competitive research
Take a look at other businesses in your market. The goal isn’t to copy and paste their strategies. Instead, a competitive analysis helps you find areas these businesses aren’t covering and where your opportunities are to serve these customers.
For example, when Sheila Brooks looked at other cake-decorating businesses, she noticed there wasn’t much marketing geared toward younger audiences. To fill this gap, Craft Cake Shoppe launched an academy program to teach cake decorating to children and teenagers. This audience segmentation approach greatly expanded Craft Cake Shoppe’s reach beyond the typical demographic. Brooks could then also reach parents whose children wanted to learn more about cake artistry.
Test on a small scale
Experiment with targeting new audiences on a small scale before fully committing resources to your idea. Try out a pop-up shop at a local community event or street fair to gauge interest among attendees. You also have the option to collaborate with other businesses that share a similar target audience and offer complementary products or services.
If you own a coffee roastery, for example, try selling beans at a nearby bakery. You could also partner with the bakery to host a coffee and pastry-tasting event. This collaboration allows you to experiment with selling to an audience of pastry lovers instead of only caffeine connoisseurs.
Get feedback from current customers
Connect with your current customer base to get insight into their preferences and needs. Encourage customers to provide their feedback on potential new products. Surveys are an effective tool for gathering feedback. They make it easy to collect valuable data and opinions directly from your customers.
Construct personas of your ideal customers
Personas are semi-fictional profiles that represent your target customer. They paint a holistic picture of your target audience based on customer data. Developing detailed personas helps you zoom in on the characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of the people you want to reach.
Focus On These Customer Traits To Expand Your Audience
Demographics
Age, gender, education level, income, occupation — these are all examples of demographics. They‘re basic facts about customers that help you understand who they are. Paying attention to demographic segmentation helps you find new groups of people who could be interested in what you sell. For example, if your current customers mostly fall between the ages of 25 and 40, consider targeting outside that age group.
Geographics
Geographic segmentation refers to your audience’s geographic location, such as country, region, city, ZIP code, and neighborhood. By focusing on different geographical areas, you’ll reach the right customers in new markets and expand your presence beyond your current location. To reach these new areas, you can consider a pop-up in a target area, investing in e-commerce, or selling wholesale to a boutique that attracts your desired customers.
Behaviors
Customer behaviors are patterns of actions and thoughts that influence consumer decisions. Understanding the behaviors of your target audience helps you identify opportunities to reach new customers who exhibit similar traits.
For example, if current customers frequently shop online and prefer convenience, it’s a sign to continue investing in order online for curbside pickup options.
Needs
Consider pain points or desires that drive customers to make their purchases. If you sell planners with built-in family calendars and meal schedules, for example, your audience should include busy professionals who need help juggling demanding work schedules and family responsibilities.
Psychographics
Psychographics relate to how customers feel. Their emotions, values, and aspirations all shape their purchasing decisions and lifestyle choices. Use these sentiments to help you find ways to expand your audience.
If you sell hiking gear, for instance, your customers are likely explorers at heart and passionate about the outdoors. With this in mind, expand your target audience by appealing to individuals who share similar psychographic traits, such as nature enthusiasts or eco-conscious consumers.
Hobbies and interests
What do your customers like doing in their free time? Understanding your customers’ hobbies and interests makes it easier to identify complementary activities or communities where your products or expertise add value. If you want to broaden your audience reach and strengthen your brand presence within related niches, this is an important area to focus on.
How To Successfully Launch To A New Audience
Add new products or services
Based on what you learn about your new target market, diversify your offerings to include products or services that cater to their specific interests. For example, a clothing retailer expanding to sell children’s clothing might consider factors such as style preferences, sizing, pricing, or even offering matching family outfits. This way, you develop a product range that appeals to parents and children alike.
Advertise and connect
Develop targeted advertising campaigns that resonate with your new small business audience. Research how your target audience interacts with similar brands. From there, identify the most effective channels for reaching those customers. Focus your marketing efforts on platforms where your audience is most active and receptive to your message.
Google and social media ads are great ways to reach potential customers where they spend their time online. Create targeted campaigns that pinpoint ideal customers based on demographics and interests. Form partnerships with social media creators and influencers whose audiences are your new target customers. When people see their favorite personalities endorsing your products, this builds trust and credibility with your brand among these consumers.
Create a new brand
Consider developing a distinct brand identity specifically tailored to your new audience. This could involve creating a separate brand name, logo, and visual identity that resonates with their preferences and values.
When Cake Craft Shoppe identified younger people as a new target audience, they launched the academy program with completely different offerings. This initiative both diversified the shop’s services and positioned it as a place of interest for teenagers who want to dabble in the culinary arts.
Move locations or open a new one
Location, location, location — it’s used most frequently in the real estate industry, but it rings true for businesses across all sectors. Your business’s location has a lot to do with its visibility, accessibility, and ultimately, success.
Scope out the geographical location of your new potential customers. Does your current storefront effectively reach them? Consider relocating to a more strategic location or opening a new storefront in an area with higher foot traffic and better visibility. The goal here is to make sure your new location is located where your target audience lives, works, or frequents.
Get involved in the community
Exposing your business to your new target audience is key to increasing awareness and generating interest in what you offer. Make your business’s name recognizable in the community.
Attend local events, sponsor a local sports team, host a charity fundraiser, or participate in industry conferences. Partner with complementary businesses to increase your brand visibility. When you expand your network and capitalize on these opportunities, you’ll effectively broaden your reach and attract more customers to your business.
Ways To Regularly Assess Your Target Market
Keep up with your audience
What your customers are buying today will probably be entirely different from what grabs their attention next year. If you want to keep your customers interested in your business, you need to remain relevant. Stay on top of trends in your industry. Consider how your customers’ needs and preferences are changing. When it makes sense, change or adjust your products or services so your business evolves to stay relevant to its target audience.
Focus on the data
The best way to keep up with your target customers’ wants and needs is to develop a strong understanding of their motivations. Fortunately, there’s tons of data that takes the guesswork out of this process. Conducting customer surveys, gathering feedback from social media platforms, reviewing website analytics, and analyzing sales data provide valuable insights into your target market’s preferences and behaviors.
Based on this data, tailor your marketing strategy to address your customers’ specific needs and preferences. This approach ensures your messaging, products, and strategies resonate with them effectively.
About Cake Craft Shoppe
As a business that’s more than 20 years old, Cake Craft Shoppe has continuously evolved and innovated to meet the needs of its customers. Sheila Brooks, who was a trained pastry chef, initially opened her company as an internet-based venture in 2000 in Stafford, Texas. The business rapidly expanded beyond the four walls of Brooks’ home, and she found a way to capitalize on this small business growth.
Using her expertise and passion for baking, Brooks started the journey of diversifying her shop’s offerings and extending its reach to new audiences. This decision marked the beginning of one of the business’s greatest expansions.
Expansion beyond cake supplies
As she took note of what other cake businesses were offering, Brooks noticed people in the baking industry were getting older, and not many new faces were entering the field. This realization led Brooks to the idea of starting an academy program to fill the gap by giving young individuals the chance to learn about the sweet side of the culinary arts. In the two years since she launched the program, the initiative has been a double success story.
Her shop’s audience now includes people interested in purchasing baking supplies and those who want to learn more about the art of baking. It’s also become a structured and supportive environment for aspiring bakers and cake decorators. To add credibility to the academy, the cake shop team is considering giving certificates to students who complete the program.
Exploring additional avenues
Cake Craft Shoppe’s commitment to expanding its reach extends beyond its storefront. To increase the shop’s customer base, it launched classes within a homeschooling co-op to reach even more students through a 16-week program.
“The more we get our name out there, the better our… sales are going to be,” Brooks said.
In addition to the academy, the shop’s team regularly attends events that position the business for even more audience growth. Local conferences, college presentations, and school district events have all been opportunities to connect with potential customers. Brooks and her business partner also discussed becoming a third-party seller that offers products from other companies through the cake shop’s website. The shop would receive a portion of the profits and get access to a larger audience without storing additional products.
“[We have to] find different ways to sell,” Brooks said. “It’ll allow us to offer much more that we’ve wanted that we haven’t been able to.”
Success with trends and advertising
There’s a lot of established competition in the baking and crafting market. To stay ahead of the competition, Brooks placed a focus on understanding what customers want and adapted Cake Craft Shoppe’s offerings accordingly. Pinterest quickly became one of her go-to tools for spotting trends. The platform made it easy for her to monitor what’s popping up frequently and capturing people’s interest.
“We’re using it to find more information about what people want and what they’re doing these days,” she shared.
These insights give the shop’s marketing manager key information for adapting the business’s products and offerings accordingly. The team also takes a customer-centric approach to advertising to find what does and doesn’t work for the shop.
Printed advertising has not proven successful for Cake Craft Shoppe. Google search engine marketing, however, brings more people to the shop and its website than any other advertising channel. By keeping a close eye on customer preferences and understanding advertising techniques, this business ensures it’s a top pick for bakers of all ages.
Have Your Cake And Eat It Too
Expanding your target audience is one of the best ways to grow your business. Reaching new customers allows you to boost your sales and establish a stronger presence in the market. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches to engage with a wider audience. In time, you’ll see your business grow, your audience expands, and your offerings evolve to meet the changing needs of your customers. To learn how to tap into a new audience, check out this episode of The Power Up, “How Classes Create Lifetime Buyers.”
